News

The Power of persistence

Mon 24 Apr 2017

ORICA-SCOTT’s youngest rider Rob Power, one of the team’s most promising up and coming talents, had an unconventional start to his professional career after his debut season with the team was plagued with injury.

The 21-year-old became the first Australian to podium at the Tour de l’Avenir in 2014, with his second place following two earlier breakthrough under-23 victories in Italy.

His huge potential and promising results led to his signing with the team and having displayed great determination and perseverance to overcome a setback last season, Power has been able able to turn things around racing overseas with ORICA-SCOTT so far in 2017.

“I was really excited to join the team in 2016, it was my first year turning pro but then I spent most of the year sidelined with injury,” Power explained. “I was trying hard everyday to come back and it was very frustrating not being able to race with the team over in Europe.”

“There were a few moments were I doubted if I would make it back to the top level, however, I always kept training hard, doing my rehab and having the end goal of being able to come back and start my season properly with the team this season.

“It was certainly a different experience, I did a lot of swimming and other activities, so starting again this year I came back into the team very fresh.”

As for many riders, seeing a teammate’s success is very inspiring and this provided Power with added motivation as he prepared for a full year racing with the Australian outfit.

“Through the times when it was really hard for me, I always remember watching Mathew Hayman winning Paris-Roubaix and all the other guys and the team’s success through the season. That was really motivating for me and it made me really want to get back racing with them.”

The West Australian has since hit the ground running after his promising start with already three tours under his belt along with other one-day races.

“This year has been a big step up compared to last year where I wasn’t able to do many races and I am trying to quickly learn as much as I can from all the riders,” the 21-year-old continued. “There are a lot of talented guys on the team and just from listening to them I have already learnt so much.”

“I’ve really been focussing on all the little things like the mornings in the hotel for example, all the simple things that I missed, I am now getting back into the routine of doing consistent racing and training.

“At times it really dragged on being injured, but now I really appreciate being able to get out on the bike and train well and so I am now very grateful for being healthy and being able to do what I want to be doing.”

As a neo-pro making the step up from under-23 to racing elite WorldTour events is a challenge to say the least, however Power is comfortably taking it all in his stride and progressing at a rapid rate.

“My next race is the Tour of Romandie. All these races are so new for me so every race is a new environment and very different and I am definitely improving in each one I do.”

“I know I have to be patient this season and keep building on what I am doing each race. As an athlete you want to always have great results and win races and that is what I want but it is my first real full season racing at this level. I am excited to see the progression.”

With this ambitious nature we can expect a lot from the young Australian talent in the future so stay tuned.